Howdy,

I am trying to help someone with a computer problem.

This is what he is running into.


"My system restarts randomly with a blue screen of death reading the error BAD_POOL_HEADER. Any thoughts, I have tried the google thing on it and none of the online stuff has helped, figured maybe someone had the magic bullet for this. Running XP SP2 BTW this is Microsofts answer to the problem----"

"The internal pool links must be walked to figure out a possible cause of the problem."



Any thoughts ?


Thanks,

Dennis

Disable the sound card and then restart the system and check it out

Check your devices in Device Manager (Start > Run > type "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter). Look for any "!", "?" or "X" symbols.

Also, run chkdsk on the hard drive. Right click on the C drive in Explorer and go Properties > Tools > Check Now (under Error Checking). Check both boxes then click "Start Now". A message will pop up saying that Error Checking will run after you restart the computer. Restart the computer and Error Checking will run automatically after the restart. After it’s finished it will restart into Windows automatically.

Try running some online scans and see if it picks up anything. BSOD are sometimes caused by malwares:

http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/
http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner
http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html
http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

Regards,
Extremeboy

I'd try the malware scans that extremeboy suggested first.
Then I'd have a look at this link: http://aumha.org/a/stop.php#0x19

It suggests that the error is caused by:
Disk issues
Router issues
Memory issues
Driver issues

The easiest thing to do would be to run a free hard drive diagnostic from the website of the manufacturer of the hard drive, and then run a memory test using this free diagnostic tool: http://www.memtest86.com/ That will serve to rule out problems with the physical hard drive and with the RAM.

The next things to do would be:
1) Open a Command Prompt (Start...Run...type in "cmd.exe" (without the quotes) and press Enter)
Type in "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes) and press Enter
When it asks if you'd like to schedule this for the next reboot - answer Yes and then reboot.
2) Use this link to reset your pagefile: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic71367.html#

The above procedures will server to rule out disk problems and memory problems - which then leaves you with either driver problems or a router problem.

The router manufacturer may have some diagnostics that you can run. If not, then you'll have to substitute a known-good router to see if that's the cause of the BSOD's (Blue Screens of Death).

Drivers are difficult to troubleshoot, so I'd suggest you read this topic for some suggestions on how to narrow down the suspect drivers: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/top...tml#entry409491

If the Debugging Tools analysis (you can post the results here for us to look at) doesn't reveal anything significant - then we'll have to enable the Driver Verifier tool (probably with the Special Pool tracking enabled). But that will rest on the results of the analysis.

Thanks for the replies !

I am going to pass them on and hopefully he will get his computer back on track.

I am going to also suggest that he becomes a member of this site.

I have recommended this site to everyone I hear mention that they are having a computer problem.

You folks are the BEST !!

Thanks Again for your help.


Dennis

No promblem, glad that we were able to help your friend. Please tell him to create an account on Bleepingcomputer and tell him to post his promblem it would be easier to understand the promblem if he is the person that's having trouble.

Regards,
Extremeboy